Everything in our life has an origin.
We don’t get fat without cause, we don’t get rich without cause, we don’t get ripped without cause.
Everything happens because something else happened, and that something else typically happens habitually, it becomes a part of who we are, often over time and too frequently without intention.
The origin of much of what’s happening in our lives right now – the good and the bad – and will happen in our lives starts with something we’re often not fully aware of or purposeful with…
…Our thoughts.
Marcus Aurelius laid it out perfectly when he said, “Our life is what our thoughts make it.”
Notice he said thoughts, not thought.
He means all of our thoughts. That is, what we’re constantly thinking about will become what we live.
That also means that you can’t think about what you want to achieve for 20 minutes in a day and then allow cancerous, weak thoughts dominate the remainder of your day because they’ll dominate your life.
This also means we have to be very aware of what we’re thinking, and most of us are not, and then our lives head in a direction that we’re unknowingly guiding them in.
An example: Think about how you think about perceived problems or road blocks.
The simplest one comes when we want to do something we cannot afford, and we end the internal discussion with I cannot afford that rather than thinking about how can I afford that?
Or how we think about where we are in life we often see what we do not have and dwell on it rather than on what we do have and building upon that.
We also don’t guard our thoughts, we willingly allow negativity to flow in and consume everything we think about, or weakness do the same, or envy, or pity.
I’d wager that most of our thoughts are out of line with who we can be, and that’s a shame, a crime, and a sin, and I’m in that boat along with you.
As Frank Outlaw said, “Watch your thoughts, they become words; watch your words, they become actions; watch your actions, they become habits; watch your habits, they become character; watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”
We focus on our habits, our habits, our character and our destiny, but rarely do we solve each by watching, guarding, and leading our thoughts to align with our desired destiny.
So how is this done?
With the mind running at 1200 words a minute, how do have our thoughts become positive and powerful?
How do we become aware of what we’re thinking and curb it to help us become who we damn well ought to be?
And, how do we do this without constantly thinking, always in our own head and never in real life, living, acting, pursuing, loving, serving, lifting, leading, and bloody well conquering?
I’ve had to work at this a lot, and am continuing to work at this a lot, and like anything we desire to achieve the answer lies in work, focus, attention, and habit.
If you’re unwilling to work and to commit to creating it habitually, it will not happen.
WHAT COMES FIRST IN YOUR LIFE?
I mean this both in a linear fashion and as it pertains to importance.
What’s the first thing you do/think in a day?
If the first thing you do is pick up your phone and check instagram, email, facebook, texts, or whatever, that habit has to be replaced.
Say Something Powerful FIRST.
At church today I learned about a fella named Frank Ocean, he’s a musician (I thought he was the guy from Ocean’s 11 – I’m not hip).
Every morning, when he was struggling, working at Staples or something like that, he’d wake up and the first thing he’d say to himself was something along the lines of, You’re a great musician, and people are lining up to work with you.
The ideal, the goal, the end was brought into the present.
The reality is that we are who we want to become and what we want to become, we just haven’t reached the tangibles yet, we haven’t accomplished the things that we will accomplish if our habits are there.
The first habit has to be thought.
To START your day, write down who you want to be and say it out loud in present tense. Repeat it. Let the vocal override the endless amount of thoughts that aim to claim your day.
Keep Your Attention on the Positive and Powerful (not happy, necessarily)
This isn’t positive as in, wishing something good to happen, it’s positive as in focusing on the good, the powerful, and what you can control.
Always have a good book close. Right now the good book for me is, Seneca’s On the Shortness of Life, get it.
The more good words you feed yourself the stronger your mind will become.
Also, watch what you watch and listen to.
I’ve always got a good audiobook on the go. Check out: The Lost Art of Discipline (my audiobook)
Initially, at least, and for me this’ll be a lifelong thing, is to have a notebook with you where you catch yourself thinking something negative, write it out.
Especially at night, we think worst case scenario. Get into that worst case scenario. First, see that you can indeed handle it, and see the likelihood of it actually happening, and then write the positive opposite outcome. Then write about what you can do to create that positive outcome.
In all, thinking the RIGHT thoughts (not even necessarily pure positivity) is what will lead to great habits, and then great achievements, great character, and great destiny.
Guard them.
If you start going negative, take control and bring it back to the positive.
It’s a battle. But it’s a battle that becomes innate over time.
Wage the battle. Don’t let the world tell you what to think or that weak part of you that wants your failure to guide your thoughts (we all have that weak aspect of ourselves that needs his ass kicked).
Again, “Watch your thoughts, they become words; watch your words, they become actions; watch your actions, they become habits; watch your habits, they become character; watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”
Get after it.
Be Legendary,
Chad Howse
